Amazon Download on Squakenet!

Almost 10 years passed since the idea of this portal came out. Squakenet mission has always been to bring you all the opportunities the Internet offers to play again old games. At the beginning the only possibility was in the abandonware, something that is also becoming quite obsolete itself. Yes, the passion and the interest that was moving this first steps of this phenomenon are themselves a past memory.

Do not take this as negative. On the contrary a lot of interesting proposals have born in the last years and we are witness of them and trying to bring to your attention every time we can. The possibility Internet is giving nowadays opened a wide market for nostalgic players, and the possibility to have a full original version of a game with few dollars (that's the real winning point!) without recurring grey-areas workaround.

Who Dares Wins 2 - Do you?

If you're visiting Squakenet you're a nostalgic. Yes, this is not psychoanalysis, it's a fact! Abandonware games lovers are all nostalgic and some days ago, I do not know how (maybe I was looking for it... but sshhhh don't say that!), I stumbled upon some article speaking about "Who Dares Wins 2". Well, this game is a great game! If you had the opportunity to play it, you know what I am talking about. Based on Commando (yes another great one!) it is the story of another Rambo-hero rushed in a world war scenario.

There are 8 levels, quite difficult to reach the end. Guess what? I did! on my C64 something like 20 years ago (now you can understand why I was speaking about being nostalgic). I manage to find a longplay so you can enjoy again the game, living again the adrenaline you need to get to kill all enemies (dare to count the number!).

August Winner

We know, last month we've been completely out of the scene with no intervention in the blog. I want to let you know we're working on some changes in Squakenet to make it better (at least we try!). However, we did not forget the contest that I remind you will finish at the end of the year. Each month we will give away one free game, kindly offered by GOG. The guys at GOG are working hard to include new games that we will publish every time to make your gaming experience the best.

Then, let's announce the winner... they call him HeXiGON! Congratulation!! Directly from Australia he decided to choose Interstate '76, indeed a nice chose, I like it very much as well.

July winner

Here a quick post to announce the winner for July review. Keep writing reviews of our beloved abandonware games, the contest will continue all along 2011. It seems Duke Nukem mania is continuing, probably thanks to the new Duke Nukem forever release.

The winner of the prize is Jacob from Ohio with the review written on July 9th for Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition. Jacob told us that his best games ever are Duke Nukem 3D, Destruction Derby and Test Drive. Why does he like them so much? because they are really awesome and he has been playing a lot.

He chose another Duke Nukem episode, Duke Nukem Manhattan Project, he never played to this episode and he would like trying it out, here a demo:

Hey dude, bring respect!

Today I want to dedicate a post about games born by movies, gangster movies in particular. The idea to write this post has born after looking at my poster of "The Untouchables" on my room's wall. "The Untouchables" movie release in 1987 and is a cult of his genre. After two years OCEAN produced the game for Commodore 64 and DOS version for pc. I remember when I played The Untouchables
I was about eight years old and I will not forget the hours spent in front of my C64 because of the difficulty of some levels.

The Witcher winners

Finally we had them! It took quite a long time (due to holidays) and also because several people we contacted did not reply back (we're still re-drawing the June review winner...): are you all guys on holiday too?

Well, about The Witcher giveaway we gave coupons to two of our users, a Facebook profile, and a Twitter one. The third was another Facebook follower but we did not receive any answer, so, we're going to use the last coupon for another contest during next month.

Our twitter winner is Kevin from New York City. His top 3 old games are
X-Com UFO Defense, Wizardry 7, and Jagged Alliance. What he likes more of Squakenet? "Squakenet.com is awesome, because they don't make games like these any more": wise words man, wise words...

We're going to come back very soon with the new contest to giveaway the last free copy of The Witcher.

Keep tuned.

DotEmu integration

Here we are, back from holidays, fresher as we've never been!! Yep, holidays help a lot, indeed. First news we have to give you is we already drawn the winners for the pending contests opened, 3 free copies of The Witcher for our Blogspot, Twitter and Facebook friends and a free game to be chosen for June review contest. Check your emails and profiles, you may be the one.

Then, let's give you another great news... Squakenet just integrated with a very interesting digital download service, DotEmu. This new service (http://www.dotemu.com/en) is quite similar to GOG and it's online since a while. They have a very wide catalog (more than 150 games) you will be able to browse and download.

Holiday time

July first... time to take a break and spend some time in total relax. Yes, as many of you already did, are doing or are going to do, we are going to take a rest some days for Summer. We have some pending prizes to deliver (3 Witcher games for our Blogspot, Twitter and Facebook followers and 1 game to be chosen for June reviews), we're not forgetting, but due to the incoming holiday we're postponing for a couple of weeks.

In the while, we're going to leave you with a typical summer game, Holiday Island game. It's like Sim City game, but the difference is you will have to build your own "holiday place", with more than 60 buildings, 6 scenario, 3 great music playground and a lot of fun, here a trailer:



You're going to spend a very good time with this simulation games, we're going to see you very soon.

Cheers,
Squake.

Forever (12 years is forever!) waiting for Duke Nukem Forever

Indeed, the game took 12 year to be released (I hope not so much to be developed!): is that the reason why is it called forever? and the final result is not even what after all this time waiting one can expect. The trailer we're posting is the usual one trying to convince us this is a game we have to play, but the first reviews coming out during these days are not of the same opinion:

A genre invented

If I say Solid Snake, what do you think about? I see you know history of games... Yes, One of the (old) games I loved most in the past was Metal Gear Solid. I played on Playstation one at the beginning of 2000, but, the pc version is the same. We know, history of videogames (and any other art/production) is full of clones, repetitive series and rarely there is something original shining in the sky.

Metal Gear Solid is direct son of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 - Solid Snake, both made at the end of 80s. This new episode was reconsidered by Konami at the beginning of 2000, with a first release on Playstation and later ported to PC and other systems. According to several sources MGS is the inventor of a genre, the stealth games since its first version, although the 3D story produced with Metal Gear Solid gave the commercial success it deserves. Despite of many action games here you will have not to kill your enemies (well, finally you will kill someone) but hide yourself in a spy-story environment.

Here it is what Wikipedia says about this kind of games:

"Stealth games in the genre typically allow the player to remain undetected by hiding, using disguises, and/or avoiding noise. Some games allow the player to choose between a stealthy approach or directly attacking antagonists, perhaps rewarding the player for greater levels of stealth. The genre has employed espionage, counter-terrorism and rogue themes, with such protagonists as special forces operatives, spies, thieves, assassins and ninjas. Some games have combined stealth game elements with those of other genres, such as first-person shooters or platform games."

Review contest, May winner

Here we are with the first draw for the contest that will go all along 2011. I am glad to announce you May winner is Jackson Fellblade with the review he wrote on May 14th for Quake game.

Many congratulations!! He is the first winner of our contest that will continue all the year long. The prize? he choosed a game gently offered by Gog, Unreal Gold, to be precise. Here it goes a short interview:

Squakenet Facebook profile and The Witcher giveaway

Hello everybody.
Some time ago I wrote a post about our 10th anniversary anticipating several surprises this year. Well, you've seen we opened a contest to offer some of the greatest download by simply writing a review (we'll update soon with the name of the winner for May...), now, in June, we want to reward our friends (you guys) with 3 copies of The Witcher, gently offered by GOG. Here it goes the trailer of the game.



Partecipating is very easy: just be our friend in Twitter, Blogspot or Facebook and we'll draw the prizes at the end of June! We've just opened a Facebook profile where you will be able to follow us, our updates and our proposals. We're growing adding tons of new games each week and integrating always new partners.

Well, what are you waiting for, like us or follow us!

Chat about Starcraft 2

Have you ever wondered where fantasy characters of our beloved games come from? Yes, such strange creatures that populates each kind of games, platform, puzzle or whatever. In particular I was thinking about the great success that Blizzard had in time with titles such Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo just to name the most famous. I made a very quick search, and the name of Chris Metzen came out.

Disney games

Some posts ago I wrote about the new cartoon movie made by Fox, Rio. I already wrote I am not a big fan of animation movies, unless, I must say that in the last year some of them are very beautiful (just thinking at Pixar's ones). Then, going back to memories I tried to remember which was the last animation movies I watched to. It was 1993 and it was Lion King.

Yes, I remind at those time Disney came out each Christmas with a new animation movie, old school cartoons... and old schools videogames as well. Yes, because all of those movies were immediately followed by a videogames inspired to the cartoon. I thought Disney had its own software development, but, looking at this page found in Wikipedia it seems they don't.

Win a game!

You know guys, this year is our 10th anniversary and I promised to prepare something to celebrate it. And since we are a portal dedicated to (old) games, what better than offering a fresh download from the ones offered by GOG? yes, you can chose from the list that is every day bigger, here some examples:

• Baldur's gate


• Moto Racer


• Fallout


• Fallout 2


• Rayman


• ...

Since 1995 to present... Command and Conquer.

War games are probably one of the most favourited, especially real-time ones. For around twenty years there has been an interesting and great development in playability and grapichs, from 2D to 3D. War games are about different scenarios, midlle age, modern wars and in this case I want to speak about World War games, precisely "Command & Conquer" saga. It all began in 1995 when born the first chapter of a series that will be one of the Westwood most successfull serie. Many critics in that year spoke about Command & Conquer as the best strategy game ever, not knowing what the future was expecting.

Angry Lemmings

Some weeks ago I downloaded Angry Birds. I admit, I was skeptical about the game but when you start playing you cannot stop. This addiction is typical of the so called "finger gaming" and the good user experience their developer managed to get is very very high. It's a trend, sure it is going to pass withing the time, though Rovio (the game software house) is making very nice things with marketing creating seasonal episodes and linking the game to Foxlatest animation movie. See the trailer.

LEGO... construction bricks and videogame

Dear guys... the title says all! For many people LEGO is the best entertainment game ever. I have many unforgettable memories since I was three - four years old and I would go back in time for play with most popular bricks without any thought. For more excited fans I suggest to visit a LEGOLAND; there are many parks in the world but what you see in photo is the one in California:

Do you want to open that door? Zombieeee run fast!

Dear guys maybe you know what game I'm talking about. Obviously, "Resident Evil". It all began in 1997 when CAPCOM shows us one of the scariest games ever: Resident Evil. Scary for fear but also because it is too beautiful. A game that has kept us glued to the console and television stations in all the world. For example I make turns with my brother to play it, because he does not ever leave me free place. Who didn't scare after opening a door or after seeing an horrible monster? The only hope for us was having the gun always loaded ... otherwise we had to run and fast. A year later CAPCOM released second chapter: Resident Evil 2 where we still have so many different zombies and monsters.

Squakenet version Ten

In gaming history very few series managed to arrive to number ten. And in web site history? well, honestly I do not know, neither I had the time to make a search since in the last weeks we've been so busy with our 10th version. Yes, as you probably have seen from the home page we've just released Squakenet version 10!!

I am very glad to announce you our new dress that will open several surprises during next months. First of all you can see the new home page where we wanted to put more attention on the different new things coming along the web site: there are different modules containing the latest news from our abandonware portal and a very nice slider whose goal is to highlight each month new interesting games coming out from abandonware world.

Are walkthrough a kind of cheat?

We loved to play adventure games. Playing this kind of games we faced many times being in front a very difficult puzzle, so, what to do then? Majority of "point and click" games as Day of Tentacle ,Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis , Simon the Sorcerer ,Sam & Max hit the road were the ones I remember with more joy. But, how much time lost in seeking the solution of the riddle and find the object to use in order to move forward in the history of the game. And maybe it was just in front of players and we never noticed. When I was 15 I remind I used to play with all my classmates, every morning we exchanged tips on how to solve puzzles... first experiments of social gaming.

Race car... what a passion and what a crash!

We like car games, all of us, especially guys. From the very first we played on Sega, Outrun till Big Mutha Truckers 2: Truck Me Harder , not forgetting F1 ones as Formula 1 Grand Prix 2 or motorbikes ones like Moto Racer 3.

In many games, especially the elder, you have the opportunity to create a track, like Stunts, or customize your own car as in Nascar Racing.

The Simpsons..... who doesn't like them?

Who hasnever seen a Simpsons episode in his life? I think nobody. I do every day, I wait till 14:00 o'clock to watch in totally relax the episode of the day.

I will never forget some memorable episodes and scenes like this:

Soccer, smile and good teasing

The soccer games like "Fifa World Cup", "Pro Evolution Soccer", just to say the most famous and many others of their kind that have done so much to challenge children of all ages. But not only, also have given more people more great moments of fun with friends, even challenging each other with well-organized tournaments. I have also personally challenged hundreds of times with various versions year after year were promptly sold. Pure carelessness is often characterized by teasing with their friends. For sure I will think of memorable matches, won or lost, with spectacular
goals, stupid mistakes or bugs really fun.

Holly & Benji (Captain Tsubasa) videogame

This weekend has been very long for me. I am home because of a little injury I had during the week playing soccer. Nothing serious, but my friends are mocking me about it, and I was mailing with one of them a video of an old cartoon I used to watch when young (well, all my generation did): in Europe it is known as Holly and Benji, the original manga title is Captain Tsubasa.

There are a lot of funny video in internet, because the cartoon broke the rule of physics and a whole generation has been affected. Time and space were two concepts that the cartoon designers did not take in consideration! Infinite flashbacks were typical in that cartoon and some of theme used to last for two or three episodes!!

Adventure games, rise and fall

I want to take opportunity of a very interesting article I read few days ago about the history of adventure games genre. We know, beetween 80s and 90s it was a great age for this genre.

Software houses like Sierra and Lucas Arts had great success thanks to epic masterpieces we loved so much. Reading the article I understood how this genre had to adapt to technology and usability, since, from the first attempts of text adventures, it was clear the necessity to make easy for the player interacting with carachter and environment.

But the success was not only due to the machine-human interaction mechanism. The great storyline behind titles such as Monkey Island or Gabriel Knight (just some example) with its comedy or its drama was really important too. However, the genre changed along the years, pushed off the main scen by FPS (First Person Shooter) before, and by casual games later.

Abandonware? points of views.

A couple of days ago I stumbled up on a very interesting article written some years ago about abandonware phenomenon. I know it's a bit annoying speaking about this topic because we did so many times in the past. I tried to recover some old discussions we had when Squakenet had a forum, and instead I found this Gamespot article by Marc Saltzman:

http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/pc/abandonware/p2_04.html

I am posting just the page I would like to comment that does contain some interesting points of view of the persons that most should give opinions about abandonware: the game creators. Well, I do post that link also because unfortunately the whole document has some broken link from the first page.

Ten years of Squakenet

2011 just came, we are still drunk from the parties. First of all, happy new year to everybody. Today is another day off (thanks God!) and I am just realizing that this year we are going to celebrate 10 years of Squakenet! Time passed so fast indeed and our little portal survived along all these years. I would never imagine all this time spent togheter when first discover the word "abandonware".

I leave you having a look at Squakenet history, I published that memory some months ago, remembering the different steps we've followed in the last years. The first day the site went on as squakenet.com was November 1st 2001 and thanks to the great support all the game lovers (you guys!!) gave us since that first day we're still here.